Patents are not the enemy

August 15, 2012|By Rod Cooper, Richard A. Epstein, and Stephen Haber

A strong patent system, as research of the late University of California at Los Angeles economist Kenneth Sokoloff shows, allows small companies and inventors to create and enforce intellectual property rights that drive economic growth. Indeed, a strong patent system was essential to the emergence of such modern industries as pharmaceuticals, medical devices and electronics.

Current patent law offers ample protection against the secret launch of a patent assault. It's just wrongheaded to think that various patent contracting strategies allow Goliath to bludgeon David, or David to hijack Goliath. Instead, they enhance the operation of competitive markets that work as well for intellectual property as they do everywhere else.

Cooper is an overseer of the Hoover Institution. Epstein is a law professor at New York University and a fellow at the institution. Haber is a Hoover senior fellow and Stanford professor in the school of humanities and sciences.